Romans 8:5-9 – Walking with God is No Leisurely Stroll
I read a true story that happened some time ago at a hospital in Montreal. Apparently, there was a 73-year-old hospital patient who insisted on lighting a cigarette while hooked to an oxygen supply, causing a small explosion. The woman, who suffered minor burns in the blast, had been told not to light up but she ignored the warnings. Luc Perreault, the spokesperson for LaSalle Hospital Centre, said, “She’s lucid and independent. She’d been told. She read the directives about not smoking.”
Now, the flames were put out quickly after the blast occurred, and damage was minor. One hospital worker suffered hand burns, and several patients were moved to another area of the hospital. The smoker was put in intensive care, minus her cigarettes and lighter. Perreault said that under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the hospital did not have the right to remove the patient’s lighter before the accident occurred. “We can’t take away personal belongings. It’s not a prison.’’
Now, I read that story and I laughed. Not in a funny way but in the sense that, people do stupid things. Because the woman demanded her rights, disobeyed the rules set before her, and chose to indulge her desires, she ended up in a worse situation. Wanting her own way got the best of her.
Today, as we continue to sort through an encouraging but deep passage of scripture, Romans 8, we will look at the issue of obedience, and how it fits into the walk of a believer. We’ll look at the issues that the 73-year-old Montrealer wrestled with: rights, rules, desires, and the insatiable need to please self. Let’s read v5-9. (Page 800 in pew bible)
This section is a comparison, or rather, a contrast between living according the sinful nature and living according to the Spirit – v5. Let’s just go over those basic terms again. In Paul’s writings, “the flesh” or “the sinful nature” means self. It means living to make yourself happy. It means doing whatever makes you satisfied and pleased. But “the Sprit” is the opposite. Living according to the spirit means living to please God. It means taking a selfless approach. It means being more concerned with God’s approval than with other people’s approval or your own approval. It means obedience.
Obedience, in essence, means to be under God’s influence. What He says, you do. Where He leads, you go. Someone once said, “If a man is filled with anger, than anger controls his life. If a man is filled with greed, then greed dominates his life. If a man is filled with lust, then lust governs his life. If a man is filled with love, then love influences all he does. And if a man is filled with the Holy Spirit, he is controlled by the Spirit – it is, if you will, control by consent.”
And this “control by consent” seems to be the intention of Paul’s writings here. To be controlled by God. Not forced, but rather, to choose to be obedient. To have our minds set on what the Spirit, what God, wants. Tell me, when you decide what to do in the run of the day, is your decision based on what you want, or do you consider what it is that the Sprit wants. When you decide what to put in the offering plate, is your gift based on God’s leading, as in, at least 10%, or is it based on what you feel you want? Do you come to church looking to feel good, to feel affirmed, or do you come looking for ways to please God more? Every person starts out looking for something to improve their lives, but for believers, the motives have to change. The motives have to become, “What would make God happy?” instead of, “What makes me happy?”
Paul gives at least 2 reasons that a believer must live according to the Spirit, according to what God desires. They aren’t overly deep and theological. They are simply plain-jane reasoning why a believer needs to be obedient.
#1 – A person needs to live according to the Spirit because obedience is better. Watch how Paul continues the contrast between living in the flesh and living in the Spirit in v6-8. V6 says that the mind of sinful man or the mind set on the flesh, set on pleasing self above all things, is death. The NLT translates this verse as: “If your sinful nature controls your mind, there is death.” However you put it, this isn’t a pleasant condition. It was sin that got us booted out of the Garden in the first place, bringing death into the world. It was sin that led each of us to go our own way, and what we earned from that is death. Listen: if all you think about is yourself, you will suffer for it. Your relationship with God will simply be a matter of ritual, and all vitality in your prayers will wither away. The joy of serving God will fade away. You will be like a zombie, the undead, a resurrected corpse. You may claim to be alive, but it will be merely existence.
Paul goes on in v 6 to say that when a person chooses to let the Spirit control their mind, there is life and peace. The fighting with God is over. The struggling ends. Not to say there will never be problems, but the issue is settled. This past week I was at the Wesleyan Ministerial down at Beulah. The speaker was Stan Toler, a Nazarene pastor who has pastored large churches and has written dozens of books. A great guy. He mentioned how he and another pastor friend would often imagine writing up their resignation letters on Mondays, wrapping the letters around a brick, and throw the bricks through their church windows. And to be honest, most pastors resign in their minds a lot more than they really do.
But when it came down to it, he never did it. The thought may have been there, but in the end, what made the decision was the man’s devotion to God and His people. That’s what it must be for us. To entertain thoughts in passing is one thing, but walking in the Spirit is the conscious decision: Not my will but Yours be done.
One more thing about obedience being better: v8. Being disobedient leads to dissatisfaction in life. The only real satisfaction comes from being a Godpleaser. A lot of people feel bad about themselves. That’s normal. And they try to feel better by working harder or making more money or whatever. But the only thing that satisfies for any length of time is pleasing God. And you don’t get that when you live to please yourself.
Now, the 2nd thought about obedience is this: #2 - A person needs to live according to the Spirit because obedience is natural. At least for a believer. Let me explain what I mean: v9. Paul follows an argument of logic here. He says, if you are a believer, if you are a Christian, you have the Spirit inside of you. And if you have the Spirit, you are not controlled by the flesh, by the desire to please self. You are controlled by the Spirit. So, if a person lives to please himself or herself, there is something wrong somewhere. In Paul’s mind, for a Christian to live to please self instead of God is almost unthinkable. How could that be? How could a Christian be selfish? How could a believer care about himself or herself more than God?
You see, obedience is natural, at least for believers, because it is supposed to be part of who we are. It’s not natural for a Christian to get his own way. A Christian doesn’t deserve his own way. A Christian doesn’t deserve to get whatever she wants. A Christian is not his own – the Bible says he has been bought with a price.
It’s not natural for a believer to remain in disobedience. It’s like nails on a chalkboard – it grates on people. People can’t stand the sound of a person who says they put God first but live like something else matters more. I picture obedience in the life of a believer like the 6 strings of a guitar. Now listen as I put one string a little out of tune. You hear that? It sounds mostly OK, but it’s out just enough to sound as if there is something wrong. And as I continue to put it further and further out of tune, it sounds worse and worse. Same in the life of a believer. Disobedience and selfishness is what puts a pleasant sounding instrument into a place where you can’t stand to hear it.
Carrying the idea further, though, there is something to be said about the quality of the guitar or the talent of the player. A Chet Atkins or an Eric Clapton can make my guitar sound better than me, even if I keep it in tune. That is to say, we are all at different stages in this.
Some of us have been walking with God a long time, and some of us a short time. God doesn’t expect a new believer to have the faith or depth of an older believer. However, some of us older believers leave a lot to be desired because we have become lazy and have forgotten all we have been forgiven of. To whom much has been given, much is required. In the end, no matter who plays it, an out-of-tune guitar still sounds poorly. No matter how long or short of time you have been saved, disobedience still sounds horrible.
Folks, it is time to walk in the Spirit. Lose the selfishness – it’s not becoming on you. This is the life you have been called to. To live above the petty concerns you were a slave to for so long. It’s time to rise above the emptiness of trying to make yourself happy. Obedience is better. It is life. It is peace. It is satisfying. And it’s a part of who you are. A Christian is never forced to sin. A Christian can have victory over things like pride and selfishness. A believer never needs to be dominated or controlled by anything besides God. So why bother letting it happen then? Be who you were meant to be.
I’m reminded of a story of the American Civil War. In 1863 the Emancipation Proclamation was proclaimed. The word spread from Capitol Hill down into the valleys of Virginia, and the Carolinas, and even into the plantations of Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama. The headlines read, “Slavery Legally Abolished!” However, the greater majority of slaves, in the South, went right on living as though there had been no emancipation. They went on living like they had never been set free. In fact, when one Alabama slave was asked what he thought of the Great Emancipator, whose proclamation had gone into effect, he replied, "I don’t know nothing about Abraham Lincoln except they say he set us free. And, I don’t know nothing about that neither." How sad. A war was being fought. A document had been signed. Slaves were legally set free.
Yet most continued to live out their years without knowing anything about it. They had chosen to remain slaves, though they were legally free. Even though emancipated, they kept serving the same master throughout their lives. Yet, so it is with many believers today. You have been set free, yet you have chosen to remain slaves to the same strongholds that have gripped you all of your life. There is something more. It is obedience. Obedience is better because obedience is natural. It’s who you are. That’s the way to live.
